Gazans mark Valentine's Day with mixed emotions

GAZA (Reuters) - For Palestinian flower growers in theHamas-run Gaza Strip, it was a holiday of love's labour's lost.

Unable to ship their blooms to Europe for Valentine's Daybecause of Israeli export restrictions, they dumped twotruckloads of flowers at the Sufa border crossing with theJewish state on Thursday and fed some of the crop to sheep.

"It is a black Valentine's Day," said grower Majed Hadayed,estimating his seasonal losses at $2.5 million (1.3 millionpounds).

Israel tightened restrictions on the movement ofPalestinians and goods through its frontier with the Gaza Stripafter Hamas Islamists violently wrested control of theterritory from President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah factionin June.

Although many of the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents donot celebrate Valentine's Day, viewing it as a Western andChristian holiday, some stores displayed red flowers andheart-shaped gifts.

"I am selling teddy bears and hearts. Let the peopleentertain themselves a bit under the siege," shopkeeper HaithamQalaja said, referring to the Israeli blockade.

Hamas security forces did not try to prevent the commerceor holiday meals at some Gaza restaurants.

Some Gazans said they viewed the "holiday of love" as abreak from tensions with Israel amid fears that it will soonlaunch an invasion of the territory, where militants have beencarrying out cross-border rocket attacks daily.

"We are trying to do something different under siege andchange the mood," said college teacher Hazem Abu Hmaid.

(Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller, Editingby xx)